I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Glenn Ford always seemed like an unlikely Western movie star to me. Short and a little pudgy, Ford never seemed to have that rugged machismo of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, or the midwestern aw shucks of Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper or Henry Fonda. He looked more like your friend's uncle than a Western hero. And yet Ford managed to star in some very good and very major classic Westerns. He was a decent actor. Not a great one. But good enough that you never really caught him acting. But the reason that Ford probably did rise to be a star probably had more to do with him being likable and seeming like a simple and honest man. He did play against type very well in 3:10 to Yuma as the villain, but mostly Ford played simple and honest men who didn't go looking for fights but wouldn't back down when they knew someone was in the wrong. He didn't even dress like the usual cowboy. No vests, spurs or chaps in most Glenn Ford movies. It was usually a jean jacket or a sheepskin coat. Simple. Honest. Never flashy. The Violent Men is a prototypical Glenn Ford movie. He plays a small time rancher, recovering from a civil war injury, who refuses to even carry a gun until a much larger rancher played by Edward G. Robinson and his far more wicked wife, played by the Glenn Ford of Femme Fatales, Barbara Stanwyck, force him to make a stand. It isn't as great a western as 3:10 to Yuma (The original, not the awful remake), High Noon or Shane. But if you like Westerns, you almost certainly will like The Violent Men. I did. If you've never seen a Glenn Ford Western, you really should check one out. 3:10 to Yuma is a great movie, but it's not a typical Glenn Ford Western. If not The Violent Men, then I'd suggest Jubal, Cimarron or The Sheepman, which are wonderful Westerns, better than The Violent Men. Maybe once you're done with those, or if you've already seen those, then you can try The Violent Men. And I'm mostly looking to talk about those movies that you may not have noticed. It's pretty good. Not great. But still pretty darn good. Simple. Honest. Fun.

Despite a terrific cast and some excellent location work Rudolph Mate's "The Violent Men" isn't much of a western. It's another range-war picture with all the inevitable clichés. It's partly redeemed, as so many films were, by the performances of Edward G as a greedy cattle-baron and Barbara Stanwyck as his scheming wife. Glenn Ford is the hero and he adds a few much needed shades of gray to the part. The two credited DoP's were Burnett Guffey and W. Howard Greene. Perhaps if someone other than Mate had directed it might have felt fresher; maybe it needed someone like Delmer Daves. It's not a total failure, though; this kind of western is basically critic-proof, building as it does to a suitably operatic climax with some decent action scenes along the way.

This oater was known variously as The Voilent Men and Rough Company though they could just as easily have called it six clichés in search of a plot given that we have a little of this, a little of that and more than just something borrowed. We have the ruthless rancher determined to buy out or in one way or another get rid of the settlers surrounding his empire, as if that weren't enough we have the man who refuses to wear a gun for the first three or four reels, the nod to Lady Chatterley via the powerful man who has lost the use of his legs, driving his wife into the arms of - in this case - his brother; all these elements are thrown into the mix and if it weren't for Eddie Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck and Glenn Ford, there'd be nothing to attract an audience; Stanwyck does a passable carbon of Crawford in Johnny Guitar albeit without the upfront clout yet nevertheless, like Crawford, possessing the only balls in the place. Rudolph Mate phones in some fairly pedestrian helming and the whole thing is forgotten as you're filing out of the theater.

As this western opens rancher John Parrish is preparing to sell up and head back east with his fiancée but when the only buyer, Lew Wilkison of the Anchor Ranch, offers him a ridiculously low amount he declines the offer... even though he knows he will take it in the end as he promised his Fiancée he'd sell for whatever was offered. That is until one of his men is murdered by Wilkison's hired guns; to everybody's surprise Parrish shoots and kills the gunslinger responsible then returns to his ranch to prepare for war; and war is what he gets! Lew Wilkison might be the owner of the Anchor Ranch but it is his scheming wife and his brother Cole who really control it and they want Lew out of the way more than anybody. Soon Anchor men come and burn his ranch but he is prepared and not only does he manage to kill several of them he also returns the favour and burns Anchor to the ground... this leads to him being declared an outlaw for the murder of Lew Wilkison and a posse of gunmen sweeping into the valley to kill or burn out anybody who stood against Anchor... if Parrish is to put a stop to the killing he will have to face Cole; and only one of them will survive! This western certainly lives up to its title as heroes and villains alike use guns and fire to further their cause; the story of a powerful cattle baron trying to force everybody else off the land he wants isn't exactly original but it provides a good story with plenty of action. Glenn Ford puts in a solid performance as hero John Parrish but it is Barbara Stanwyck who steals the show as the wicked Martha Wilkison; the film's true villain. There is plenty of action to be seen here including shootings, a man being brutally whipped, an impressive cattle stampede and numerous ranches being torched. Director Rudolph Maté took full advantage of the widescreen presentation and the spectacular scenery to give it an epic feel even if it is only a B-Western. I would certainly recommend this to people who like their westerns packed with action.